With smartphones stealing our attention, we’re picking up fewer books than ever. A novelist shares her eight-week scheme to get you back into the habit

Join us for the five-day Making Zen Online Retreat happening 4-8 May 2026.

All you can do is arrange things that are already here. Everything’s already here anyway. The idea that creativity means making something out of nothing, that’s nonsense, of course. - Wim T. Schippers I have started a new project where I am re-purposing my mom's mother's old address book. I picked it up when she died, because I am a paper hoarder after all.

I was out walking with the camera this morning, thinking that I am so privileged to be surrounded with process. And the time to consider it. - Jude Hill* The finished art quilt has a slight vintage lo...

This blog post is about swatching out new pens when you buy them, about using doodling as a way to slow down and maybe even meditate, and about playing with gel pens in a journal or sketchbook. This b...

Brown is a color that we seldom notice or name, even thought it is beautiful and all around us. It is warm and comforting, natural and gentle - and as tasty as cocoa. Brown is strong as a tree trunk and old as the world. Artists that mix it by mistake call it "mud", but baking a mud pie is almost always better than not being creative at all.

Make space for silence. Not empty time you immediately fill with a podcast or another scroll—actual silence. Five minutes in the morning before you reach for the phone. A walk without earbuds. A meal eaten without a screen. These are acts of reclamation. You are taking back the most valuable thing you have: your undivided attention. - Michael Becka *

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake... - Francis Bacon These two looks like s...

I had wanted to write my entire life. I was born a writer. I had been trying to express myself for years. It was now or never. - Robin Finn I have read the book “Heart. Soul. Pen. Find Your Voice on the Page and In Your Life”, by Robin Finn. I found it to be a wonderful read, something I did not know I needed before I started, but feel so happy to have found.

Sometimes when you don't know what to do in your creative practice, you must do the opposite of what you think you "must" do. For example, if you think that you really "should" start painting on your big pile of stretched canvas, but something inside you stops you, maybe you shouldn't. Instead maybe you should paint a couple of collage papers, as a warm up.

Meet Niki De Saint Phalle, Joy Bell and Jess Engle, three very creative women in today's Creative inspiration blog post. I'm including some of my favorite YouTube finds of late. I hope you find them all as interesting as I did. I still can't belive I've dunnit, because why would you? - Joy Bell The upcycled glass room What: Artist Joy Bell gives the viewer a tour of her very cool and innovative room with a window made out of old glass bottles and bowls, and she also explains how she made it and how you can do something similar in your own home.

YouTube video by iHanna

On a June walk I spotted some of the many, many delights of summer: flowers in bloom. I love the pinks, the blues, the purples, the whites, all of them. I had to share some of them with you:

I collect images because I love images. I collect images in many ways and in many different forms, and I'm especially drawn to the colorful, cute, sweet, romantic or happy (and sparkles!). And to me, all of these themes or categories can be found in stickers. Through the last couple of years I have let my sticker collection become a collection again, much like it was when I was 10 years old.

From checking the date to tracing the source: building a sharper eye for information.

Today I just want to share one single spread in my so called doodle book. I'll write more about what a "Doodle book" is to me another time, but simply put, it's just a sketchbook where I don't sketch but just allow myself to doodle. Patterns, forms, flowers, birds, lettering, anything that pops into my brain really. This time it was a bunch of flamingos, an entire Flamingo family actually.

“Beyond the difficulty of communicating oneself, there is the supreme difficulty of being oneself.”

If you write short snippets rather than overthink everything and write long texts for hours that is great for you. You will likely save yourself headaches and time. But your writing will not be enough for everyone. Some of us crave depth, length, deep thoughts, and red threads leading us forward! Yes it's true, not everything is better in snippets.

This blog post is about swatching out new pens when you buy them, about using doodling as a way to slow down and maybe even meditate, and about playing with gel pens in a journal or sketchbook. This blog post contains three videos from yours truly, iHanna, so let's start with those. Gel pen doodle videos The videos are all quite short and quick to watch.

600+ women share what actually changed things for them

Why inspiration feels harder to come by and how three types of creative ritual could be our strongest defence against the slow erosion of taste, attention, and intention.

If today was not a productive day don't beat yourself to death over it. Wake up tomorrow and start from there. Try it. It works. We can't go back. We can only go forward. Let's go! - Terry McMillan Ar...

A Rainbow glue book is a notebook divided into color sections where you glue in monochrome images and photos you find in magazines. After I finished my first one a few years ago, made in a composition...

YouTube video by KoolKookyKreatures

A Rainbow glue book is a notebook divided into color sections where you glue in monochrome images and photos you find in magazines. After I finished my first one a few years ago, made in a composition notebook with about 100 pages or so, I was a bit sick of it. I never thought I would start a second one, but here we are again!

Today I am sharing with you another peek into my Art Journal, because it's been a while. On this page in the altered book "preppy journal: I used the absolute cutest kitten illustration ever. It's from a vintage children's book that I thrifted and shared in a thrift haul about two years ago. This illustration was on the cover, so I had to tear it from the book board.

Creating your own handmade postcard artworks is always exciting, because you can make absolutely anything on your surface. But this might also feel a bit intimidating if you're new to making DIY postcards... Where do you start when the sky is the limit? One way can be to set some restrictions or parameters that you will stick to for the first batch of postcards.

My mom and I created twin quilts using some of her many polka dot patterned fabrics. I am really pleased with the result, and I am using my pink polka dot quilt every day as I love to snuggle up under it when I'm crocheting, reading or watching something on the sofa. Our polka dot quilts folded together. I've got some yellow fabrics in my quilt, but otherwise it's mostly warm tones like pink - my signature color.

It is time to join iHanna’s DIY Postcard Swap spring 2026! You can sign up today and start creating your handmade postcards along with me this month. It'll be so nice to do this again. You have from t...

Alt: Gif of Baby Yoda Sleeping in The Mandalorian

Join us for the five-day Making Zen Online Retreat happening 4-8 May 2026.

I love watching all the wonderful things that (still) pop up on the internet, despite all the madness of world, weird algorithms and blogs going almost extinct. I keep collecting them, bookmarking links, restacking quotes, and so on, but as I definitely have been sharing less here it's making less sense to hoard digital inspiration "for later". Now I have a big backlog of creative inspiration to share - and thought Saturdays would be a good, calm day to share a few links or YouTube videos with you guys on, as a way to enjoy our weekend.

There are SO many different ways you could create a handmade postcard, right? You can experiment with materials, tools, layers, words and images, applications and styles - in infinitum. Personally it'...

If today was not a productive day don't beat yourself to death over it. Wake up tomorrow and start from there. Try it. It works. We can't go back. We can only go forward. Let's go! - Terry McMillan Ar...

I have this note up on my wall. It's been up for over a year now. I was just testing out some green metallic paint on a yellow post-it-note and lettered "Make your art" as a message to myself. I stuck it up (not actually on the wall but to a drawer in the dresser) and it's still there, a year later.

Some Altered Vintage Postcards by me, iHanna. Enjoy. Each swap round I try to experiment a bit with my postcards. I mix it up, change things around, try new ideas and techniques. This time I started o...

I have celebrated another birthday. I got a glorious pink birthday cake fitting my age and maturity. So now I am 50 years old all of a sudden. As time pass I am sure I'll get used to seeing these numbers and think of them associated with me, but at the moment it's still hard to grasp that I AM THIS OLD!